the begining of a journy
by kage tensai
Summary: ok i spellched it this time.a convicted criminal is set to be executed and while standing on the gallows he notices a girl. the only way to know what happens is to read it. rated for quite alot.in the future R
1. Chapter 1

The drums bellowed across the city with each strike. their roar was low, but carried through everything that was touching the ground. it was the sound of an execution.

Each thunderous boom spelled the word death in the heart of every man, women, or child. a crowd of the strongest hearted people formed around the gallows. The sky was dark with cloud cover hanging overhead. The city was almost silent accept for a few crying babies in their mother's arms being crooned and comforted in this hour of death.

"hanging", it wasn't a good word to be used right now. the people waited apprehensively, almost holding their breath for the execution to begin. right about this time, the last meal was being served to the convict.

A deadly chill ran down the spine of every onlooker of the execution as the sound of chains rattled through the streets. the sound was the most horrible scraping, rattling noise that anyone could ever attempt to describe in their life time. any child who was crying had stopped as rain began to trickle across the small city.

the drums beet faster as the escort group walked toward the gallows with the ends of the chains shackled to their wrists.

through the four escorts, the four guards, and the executioner, there could be seen a figure in the middle. he was hunched over with an iron mask covering his face.

it was secured from the back by a latch. the cold smooth surface of it reflected the surroundings. a large string of chains and seals were placed over and around his torso, his legs were bound by two enormous iron weights that would have crushed any human wearing them. the crowed went silent and cleared a path for the escorted convicted soul. lightning crashed through the air and seemed to be helping the drums. the convict was on the gallows now. he could be seen more clearly, his hair was a stunning array of gold, white, silver, and black that seemed to mingle with each other. his scared skin was only proof of his former life. his tattered pants were nothing short of prison grade- flour sack attire.

the executioner placed the rope around his neck. the escorts unshackled his legs and dispelled them with a simple hand sign, in a cloud of smoke they were gone. the warden appeared behind the convict with his assistant holding an umbrella above him. the rain started and the crowd breathed with an air of relief. the warden opened a large book and began reading form a passage.

"Here before you today, stands not a man, but a monster of society. an outcast of the people who were born into this world. one who was not born into this world and has sought after destroying it!"

All who appose the execution of this monster shall be sentenced to death along with him-"

the convict seemed to stir at these words, he lifted his head and looked out at the people, as though looking for something. someone. a girl stood at the foot of the gallows watching him intently. this little girl, almost old enough to come of the age to know the love of a kiss, had enough courage, to see the execution of one of the most wanted criminals in the world. He was so dangerous, that he had been removed from the bingo book in fear that more people would die at his hands. his bounty was enough to buy a small country.

his attention was drawn to the little sparkle eyed girl. he was looking direct ally at her through the iron mask covering his face. the girl was mesmerized by her own reflection in its wet surface.

why was he looking at her. had she done something? was she going to die? what was going on? how could he see her through the iron? did he actually see her or was he just randomly looking in her direction.

he nodded at her.

she was shocked at what happened. no one seemed to see what had happened, absolutely NO one.

she instantly knew what it meant. somehow she knew what to do. she nodded back at him and he looked away. she crawled under the gallows just bellow where the hatch door was. there was a small latch that connected to a leaver atop the gallows that the executioner stood by. she jammed a rock into the small devise and crawled back out, unseen by the people who were watching him.

a wave of terror struck her as she realized what she had just done. she looked back at the convict, watching unsteadily. the drums stopped. the executioner grasped the leaver.

"- does the convict have any last words?" the warden spoke.

the man took a long breath and stood silent, choosing his words. he raised his head and turned his head toward the warden. the crowd eased forward listening closely.

"yah, just a few." said a cold raspy voice from behind the mask.

there was a pause at what he had just said. no one had actually thought he would say something, the girl thought to herself.

the man shifted in his place. the warden raised an eyebrow impatiently. the executioner tightened his grip.

a lightning bolt cracked through the air.

"... you made the choice." he said.

the girl froze. time seemed to slow as the executioner pulled the leaver and nothing happened. the crowd gasped in shock. the warden froze, mortified at the seen before him. then suddenly in the blink of an eye. the man jumped into the air and sliced the robe with his foot. flipping backwards he landed and tripped a guard, kicking him into a building clear across the yard. the other guards were surprised at this and had little time to react before meeting the same fate. the wardens assistant toppled backwards in surprise, dropping the umbrella on the wooden boards of the gallows. the man jolted over to it and flung it at the warden with such force that it buckled and shot straight through him.

the crowd ran screaming well after half the damage had been done. they hadn't even realized it had happened until the umbrella shot through the warden. the little girl ran with them as she noticed that a civilians had pointed her out to one of the support squads who had been hidden around the execution site this hole time.

the executioner lunged out at him, but with ease he jumped and rolled over his attacker and splattering him all over the gallows with one fatal kick. he stood and searched the air for his assistant. a scream was let out behind him. he turned and ran wildly toward it.

the girl was caught by the arm by one of the officers and throne over his shoulder. she screamed again and beat ferociously at his back. she kneed him in the stomach and punched just above his kidney, making him drop her. she ran again. the rain that was pouring down her face was making it hard to see. the other men that had been with the man she had escaped from appeared in front of her. grabbing her arms and securing her with a few mumbled words and a hand sign.

the lightning cracked again and the first man exploded in front of them. the blood fell and the convict stood were the officer had been. he looked wildly around until he found her. he stalked over to them slowly. the two officers who had secured her dropped her and took out their weapons. the convict seemed to waver with heat like the desert horizon. then he was in front of her. there was a long trail of white hot road behind him and the two other officers exploded into thousands of tiny peaces. he kneeled down to her eye level. she sat up and looked at her reflection in the iron mask.

"why me?" she asked. but with no answer. he stood again at the sound of more officers coming. he lifted her with his leg and threw her onto his back.

"hold tight" he said and leaped down the street. she was in a panic. she could feel the cold wet chains around this person. she didn't even know who he was. the government had tried a great deal to keep his existence a secret.

the officers fallowed persistently. she looked back at them and saw more than fifty officers chasing after them.

with the wind blowing and her legs getting cold, she was reminded of her attire, which consisted of a dress that was of no better quality than that of the convicts pants, and the under ware she had beneath it.

a frightening thought occurred to her after that. she couldn't do anything about it now though. she was grasping an extremely deadly criminal around the shoulders for dear life as they leaped over the city she called home. if she let go, she would either be killed, or live than be executed for aiding the most dangerous person in the world. she looked back over the shoulder of the convict and saw the forest that surrounded the city.

suddenly she was tossed around as the man turned and kicked out at the officers launching a portion of them back with an invisible blast of air that shattered the rooftops of the buildings bellow. he turned around once again, twisting out of her grasp so that she flung around him and faced him face to mask. she closed her eyes in fear. he curled his legs around her and tucked his head above hers as they hit the forest and disappeared.

they flew through the branches for a short time and the branches just seemed to form back to protect them. finally they stopped with a loud thud against a large tree. she opened her eyes and looked around he was panting heavily behind his mask. she pushed away from him and stumbled back on the enormous branch the forest around them was like nothing she had ever seen. she hadn't been this far out into the forest to know what it looked like. she took in the surroundings and finally made her way back to the man who had just a short while ago been standing on the gallows in front of her.

he was slouched against the tree with his head drooping to one side. it was truly a sight to behold. such a powerful being in such a week status.

he looked up at her.

"hey... you alright?"

she nodded.

"help me with this mask would yah?" he said tilting his head forward.

she did as she was commanded and crawled over to him sitting on her knees in front of him. she felt uneasy about this. did she really want to?

curiosity overwhelmed her and she reached out to the latch on the back of his head. his hair was slightly wet but eerily smooth.

she hesitated at the touch of the latch. his breathing slowed. she began to back away, but was stopped. when he coughed a deep raspy cough. she licked her lips and grabbed the latch pulling it and freeing the mask from his face.

it fell off into her lap. she was shocked. she had expected to see some sort of demon contorted face covered in scars and welts. but instead. there was the face of a man. a young looking man who looked no different from any other human. his eyes opened and looked at her. his eyes were a brilliant bright green like a polished emerald. it was truly a sight to behold.

he looked her over and then painfully tried to stand, failing and falling back to his current position. he gasped for air again at this effort. a drop of blood dripped down his bangs onto the tree she snapped out of her trance remembering what he had just done. he was still covered in blood, and so was she.

"your gonna need to learn fast kid cause we're going back there in two weeks to get my stuff." he said leaning his head back on the tree.

"learn what?" she asked accepting her new life of crime.

he looked down at her with one solid black eyebrow perked. "a lot." he said. closing his eye's and falling asleep.

she paused and thought about what he just said. her eye's became heavy and without warning she fell asleep as well. the cold damp forest around them grew silent as the rain continued on.

this was the start of their journey.


	2. Chapter 2

The forest was cool and damp from a fresh nights rain. The light breeze that flowed through carried the smell of dew and rotting wood. No birds were chirping close by, but could be heard in the far distance. Among the sweet smells of dawn in nature's forest, there was a faint smell that even as discrete as it was, was still noticeable. The stink of blood.

A drop hit her head for what seemed the thousandth time. Her eye's flickered open and stared blankly out at the sideways forest she saw. She broke her trance with a blink and sat upright. Her hair was damp and speckled with moss from the tree beneath her. Her white grayish white dress felt soaked and rough because of its poor quality.

She look around her in every direction except behind her, fearing the man of whom she had aided in his escape. Even though she knew what he looked like, even though he was probably worn out from his escape the previous day, even though she somehow knew he wouldn't hurt her. She was still afraid of him.

There was a patch of large bowl shaped leaves growing out from the side of the large branch she was on. Nearly slipping on the moss to look at them, she regained her traction and looked at her reflection in the water that had pooled inside it.

Nothing was different, other than the blood stains on her dress and cheek. Her hair was slightly less brown looking because of the lighting from the forest. However, the two green gleaming strips of hair that crossed over her head from the front of her head to the back and down to the tips of her shoulder blade length hair seemed only to blend with the reflected forest above her.

She licked her thumb and tried to rub out the spatter of blood on her cheek. She rubbed and rubbed but it didn't seem to want to come off. Slightly smearing it, she gave up and sat back on the branch. Another thought, or memory as she had said to herself earlier.

She was a criminal now.

Being seen by the ANBU would put her in a worse position she was already in. just by helping this convicted criminal, she had sealed her life. She couldn't even remember why she had done it in the first place.

Her face must have said everything for a much clearer, but still spine tingling voice spoke to her form over her left shoulder.

"It was a gen-jutsu that got you to jam the latch... but you chose to come along with me on your own."

the words seemed to stop her heart as he finished with his explanation. She was baffled and shocked at the amount of questions that had arisen in her mind all at once.

"_How long has he been watching me?"_

"_Why didn't he just break free on his own?"_

"_How did he know what I was thinking about?"_

"_What would happen if I turned around?"_

She paused after the last one. Curiosity was her weak point. She had to know now what would happen. Even if she was scared, she needed to know. She had always been like that, even as a child, she would always ask questions, look for answers, explore anything that was a mystery to her.

She swallowed and turned slowly to the man. Her eye's closed like she was about to be struck by something. Slowly she opened her eye's.

She let out a small shriek when she saw the man was somewhat melded with the tree. Bits and pieces of him were attached to the tree. The word absorbed was the word that came to mind. He was looking her straight in the eye with the most blunt expression she had ever seen. It was almost arrogant. The feelings of fear seemed to melt away at this observation. His emerald eye's seemed to search her over for something then stopping abruptly, looking down and closing. Her face flushed with red color. She pulled her dress farther down her legs, straightening any extra fabric that had been crumpled up anywhere. She looked back at him with a new curiosity. He seemed calm, really calm for someone attached to a tree.

"I'm regenerating my powers." he said bluntly.

"By being stuck in a tree?" she blurted out. She clasped her hands over her mouth in surprise.

She actually just blurted out a question to a dangerous criminal!

She scooted back from where she had been, afraid that he might rip himself from the tree and tear her limb from limb.

"No not by being stuck to a tree, by absorbing the tree's energy just enough to kick-start my own." he said shifting he shoulders. He hadn't even moved from his spot, it hadn't even looked like he had moved his lips. A slight bubble of fear arose again, but quickly faded when she realized that in his state, he could do nothing to her.

"So... you-said something about...learning something?"

the sudden change in subject was her building courage showing its self. A drop of water hit the surface of the mask close by on the branch.

"Ya, and you better learn in two weeks or I'm leaving you behind."

his words were cold but clear. She sat at attention waiting for him to order her to do something. There was nothing but silence. He looked up at her.

"What?" he questioned.

She still sat waiting for him to tell her something. She had assumed that if he was going to teach her something, she should observe him in any way possible just encase she had to pay attention at any moment. She had been looking at his forehead but when her eye's met his, her eye's began to water and burn. She looked away rubbing them.

"If you want to learn so badly than run up this the trunk of this tree."

he said. She stood and looked up the tree after wiping her eye's. The tree seemed to keep going past the canopy of the forest. She looked down at him and their eye's met again. She buried her face in her hands wiping away the burning tears.

"Didn't think so." he said letting his neck go limp.

"how am i supposed to get up there?" she asked through her hand as she sat back down.

"here." he said in a pestered tone.

She looked through her fingers and watched as he formed a strange sign in the moss of the tree with his foot. She watched how accurately he drew each line and suddenly clapped his foot down on it. A poof of white smoke spattered from the sign. There was a small hiss from inside the smoke and it blew away. In its place stood a small wooden training dummy with a long square nose that had a twig popping out from the end. It had rounded fists and little chains hanging from them. It was sitting with its legs crossed and looking at her intently. She stared at it, utterly confused as to how he had just done that. "W-what is that...thing?" she asked warily. It suddenly sprung to life and cocked its head to the side. Its head spun around to face its creator and in a small humming voice, asked. "This the one boss?"

she was speechless. He nodded and the small dummy turned back to her and looked her over, circling around her a few times. Observing her every detail. "it wont be easy, but i can get her up to basics in about a week and a half." it said placing its small wooden, spherical hands on its sides.

"stand up!" it said to her. She stood obediently, not fully aware as to why. She watched it with an peeking amount of confusion.

"alright kid, lets get things straight. You are a pathetic little weakling with no talent or powers at all. I am going to coach you until you can prove me wrong, and if you can prove me wrong with in one weeks time, i will personally protect you until i die." the small wooden figure said.

With that she looked at him as she would a superior instead of a tiny hunk of talking wood. Why was she being so obedient? She glanced at the man who was still absorbing energy. Some how he was making her act so obedient. More of that gen-jutsu perhaps?

"Now! Lets begin!" the small figure said putting its tiny hands together. The branch shook as thousands of little branches and vines shot out in front of them. They twisted and turned and wrapped around each other until a perfectly flat platform was spread out before them. She stepped onto it lightly to make sure it was safe. She turned around to look at her new instructor and was startled to see that it was now life sized. It walked past her and stood in the center of the landing, turned to her, and stood in a fighting pose.

"We're on a tight rope kid so I'm not going easy on ya." she stepped onto the platform. "w-what am i supposed to do?" she asked

"fight me." it said bluntly.

Seemed simple enough, its not like she hadn't been in her share of school yard fights back in the day. She stood uncertainly across form the dummy like she was going to fight.

In two steps the dummy jumped out at her and knocked her down with a push.

"Ow! That hurt!" she yelled at it.

"I said I'm not going easy one you! So get up and fight me!" it demanded.

She stood and readied again. She was angry now. She punched out at the dummy and it dodged with ease and tripped her.

"your to easy to knock down! Stand back up and fight!"

it kept saying. She slammed her fist down and charged at the wooden dummy blindly. Tears of anger were building in her eye's. She punched at it and it blocked she punched again and it blocked again.

She kept punching furiously and it kept blocking and dodging like it was nothing. Its teasing moves drove her to keep going.

"your not fighting, your just punching!"

it kept saying.

This continued for an hour until she was too tired to move. She collapsed on the ground and panted with thirst. Her anger boiling down to a pure sense of loathing as her physical limits strained and made her stop. She was beat. She couldn't move and she couldn't defend herself. The dummy just stood and watched her. The forest seemed to have stopped doing anything while they were fighting. A bubble of water floated over to her and slowly forced its way down her throat. She gulped it down and sat back up, still panting.

"Cant I learn how to use a weapon instead of fighting with my hands?"

she asked. The dummy walked over to her and sat down. It knocked her head in a punishing manner.

"no, you learn how to fight first with your hands, than you move your way out to weapons."

she grasped her forehead and leaned forward in pain.

"now that your tired, we will begin to learn about your chakra."the dummy said placing its rounded fists together and sitting cross legged. Its fists began to glow light green and the leaf on its twig that sat on the end of his nose fell off. She watched the leaf land delicately on the surface of the platform.

"this will show what chakra nature you are." it said looking down at the leaf.

"I've charged it with a super sensitive chakra that reacts to your chakra in different ways."

she watched the leaf in amazement.

"o-k, what do i do?" she asked.

"when you pick it up it should do one of five things. It depends on your chakra nature."

Her curiosity made her reach out and pick up the leaf with out hesitation.

She held it for a short time before it suddenly dissipated in her finger's. She jumped back in surprise.

"what the-!" the dummy watched the dust float away.

"looks like you have some ties to earth kid."it said more to its self than to her.

"what?" she questioned.

The dummy faced her, placing its fists on its hinged knees and spoke.

"it goes like this, the five possible out comes of that test were as fallows: if you had a water based chakra, it would have gotten soggy, if you were fire it would have burned, if you were wind it would have split in two, if you were lightning it would have crumpled, and lastly you were earth so it turned to dust. You with me?" it finished cocking its head to one side. It was a lot to take in. chakra, training, earth, it didn't make all that much sense. She shook her head slowly, wiping her fingers on her dress.

"Well than you better learn fast, cause I'm not stopping when ever your stuck."


	3. Chapter 3

The next week was pushed to any limit possible. The physical and mental stress, doubled with a one week time expectancy to master everything she heard or was taught was making her regret ever helping 'him'. She didn't even no anything about this person other than he was going to be executed and she stopped it for some odd reason. It was like he had had some kind of grasp or control over her. He had called it "gen-jutsu", but it had felt more like she was a puppet on a string.

What ever the case, she was moderately proud of her progress she had made in such short time. She had managed to climb the tree a hole forty feet with out her hands and another twenty running like a dog. She had trouble getting over being able to stand upside down without anything securing her, but she adjusted to it with some practice.

She also learned about the chakra circulatory system, how it works, and what can cause it to shut down.

She a strange interest grew in her about the chakra gates. Seeing as she was in training almost twenty-two hours a day, she slept when she could.

Her coach, or as she has come to know him Mr. Woods, hadn't made anything she did seem like something to be proud of. When she took her first few steps up the tree, all he had done was cross his arms and say "that it?"

it made her so mad that one night, she had fallen on her back after she had made it eight feet. He did what he always did and she got angry enough to completely forget the man watching her.

He thoughts were centered around the man sized wooden dummy standing above her. She had felt tears build in her eyes as she got up and launched herself at it, nearly knocking it off the platform.

If it hadn't clung to the edge of the branch beside the man, it would have fallen into the bottomless forest beneath them.

It wasn't enough for her, she had stormed up to the dummy as it re-gained its footing and gave it a good chakra charged punch in its face.

She regretted doing that now because of the large fist mark that it left. Sometimes she would hear the man who was still attached to the tree laugh to himself when she would be thinking of an apology.

It was strange, she no longer felt scared around the man.

She had even on one occasion landed by him after climbing the tree and talked with him on a way to make it easier. It was a short conversation, but it was progress.

She hadn't learned anything other than the basics, but it felt like she was a master already.

At long last, one week had gone by, it felt like it had been a month, all she had eaten were bugs and any fruit that just happened to be close by. It was rainy most of the days, the last day of training was most likely the darkest and stormiest of all. She was slouching next to Mr. Woods and the man by the tree eating a large pudgy looking bug with large chomps. It tasted like shit, but it was still food.

Her tattered dress now had her own blood, moss, the blood of the ANBU members that 'he' had killed, and an assortment of holes and rips over it.

What she seemed to be looking forward to the most was just being able to leave. She had seen the man occasionally shift outward. He was more than half way recovered now.

Every time she saw him moving her heart leaped at the thought of finally being able to get off of this tree.

She gulped down the last of the large bugs inerd's and stood up when there was a large crackling noise as the wood beside her seemed to explode, sending her into a front flip onto the platform.

She landed and quickly looked at where she had just been standing. A large cloud of debris and pollen fell around from the spot like snow. She glared into the cloud before seeing a tall figure shift and launch at her. All she had time to do was push her elbow out in attempt to make the opponent jab into it.

Just as she had expected an impact. There was a body hanging over her, centimeters away from her elbow. There was an arm over left shoulder and a hand at her heart. She realized who it was.

"Master?"she said clumsily, trying to think of something fit to say to the man of whom she did not know his name. The man chuckled. His voice wasn't as raspy anymore. It was still the same hollow tone, but not as empty anymore. His chains were broken and his body was emitting a strange cold heat. He smelt like he was dead and brought back to life after having his body carried through hell and back than shoved in a meat locker for a week. She felt a cold hand touch her back. A touch that sent a chill up her spine.

"i saw that little fight with woods." he whispered into her ear.

She felt her face go scarlet at this gesture and dodge rolled out of his grip three feet away, facing him.

Still kneeling, she looked him over as he slowly moved into a standing position. Everything on his back had been entirely blown apart. The straight jacket and chains where now hanging form the front of his body from what was still attached to his shoulders. His back was covered in a variety of scars and burns.

"you look surprised." he spoke in a lighter tone.

She broke from her trance and looked up at his face. She was taken back by the fact that he now looked, in a sense, handsome. His eye's had a new, lively spark to them. His hair was the same color, give or take a little extra sheen. She stood up and looked him over again.

"you didn't tell me about that side of you." a voice said from behind her. She jumped and turned around he was standing in front of her now. She looked back to see nothing there than back at him. He had soundlessly stepped closer to her and was now maybe an inch away.

He bent down to her eye level, his eye's glaring at her..

She tried as hard as she could to stop her eye's from tearing up, but some tears still dripped down her face as she forced herself to look him in the eye.

A devious smile pulled up one side of his face.

"how long have you had that little ball of _joy_ in you now?"

she froze. What? Ball of joy? What did that mean? She was never even touched by a man in her life so she couldn't be baring a child.

"ball of- joy?" she questioned.

He blinked and as his eye's opened, they seemed to open in slow motion. When they fully opened, she was thrown into a spiral of darkness. Suddenly she felt a thud. She opened her eye's and she was in a large, dimly lit hallway. It was made out of some sort of blue stone that was warm to the touch. Small greenish crystals lined the walls and let off a faint glow. She looked around her and down the hallway next to her. A strange noise echoed from it. She fallowed the sound. She could see a light being emitted from a hallway farther down from the one she was walking down. She went down it and toward the light. She entered an orange colored room that looked like an arena entrance from where she stood. She walked over to a iron bar covered window and looked around.

It was a Colosseum. A huge, expansive Colosseum. It towered above into small dot of light where the top was, and at the bottom was a small dirt circle in which a red dot seemed to be floating in the middle. She poke her head between the bars and squinted to see what the ball was. In a sudden swooping noise the ball zoomed up to the window and stopped in front of her. It was much, much larger now. She could see herself in the reflection of its surface.

In a split second, a great big burning black eye opened and a loud screech shot into her ears.

She was awake now and standing in front of her 'master'.

"that ball of joy." he said in a dark tone. He stood up straight and looked down at her, still wearing that smile.

He whistled to woods and the dummy shrunk down to its normal size before disappearing in a cloud of smoke.

"what was that?" she asked him, feeling like a child.

He looked down at her again and his smile got wider.

"power."he said and turned around walking to the large dent in the tree. He sat down in the dent an stared into the forest.

She didn't know what to do now. She had a strange creature inside of her that some how had something to do with her leaving a large fist indent on woods face. She felt tired. She decided to sleep now that she didn't have to worry about training any longer. She sat down where she was and curled up under her dress. She closed her eye's and fell asleep.

He kept staring out at the forest thinking about her demon.

"it looked like a powerful one." said on voice in his head.

"how would she come across such a demon? A simple girl." another said.

"how ever she did it, we should see if we can somehow incorporate it with the rest of us."

the first voice said.

"it wont be as easy as some of you were. This one might be able to over power as least two of you." a deeper voice said.

"if we let it stay there, it might become to strong for even the boss."

a rather wispy voice said.

"don't fret. It will not advance in anyway as long as i have access to it, you all saw how easily i got into her mind. Its just going to be harder to get to it, thats all."

he said to himself. There was a pause form the other voices.

"fine, i agree with him, we shall be patient."

the first voice said.

"agreed" the rest said one after another.

Now the only problem was actually doing it.

He was energized now that he had had time to heal, and regain his powers. All that was left to do was wait another week until he was sure the ANBU wouldn't be expecting him.

He laughed smugly to himself and closed his eye's.

"now we move on to the more difficult skills."

she opened her eye's after her first full nights sleep in a week and rubbed the sleep from them. A thin layer of pollen had settled on her in her sleep so she brushed it off and got to her feet. She looked around the forest and saw to her surprise, not a think layer of heavy fog, but streaks of light flowing into the deep forest through the canopy above. It almost hurt her eye's to see the sunlight again. It had been a long time since she had seen it. Even back home the clouds had been covering the sky for nearly a month.

She squinted in the light and turned to the tree. The large gaping dent was still there, but no chain bound man lying in it as he had been before. She looked around her feeling a wave of panic rise slowly in her stomach.

There was a slight cough far behind her. She turned to it to see her master standing on a branch in the light a far distance away. He was had done away with the tatters of his restraint jacket and was standing with his arms crossed and a haunting grin on his face. She stared cautiously at him. A strange thought occurred to her. She quickly turned around to see him standing directly behind her. She instinctively swung her arm around at him and he tilted his head to the side with ease. She stepped back and saw a slightly different face on him. She turned to the other one standing on the branch. He was still there. Same face, except, it wasn't him, it was a different pair of eyes. A wisping noise above her. She jumped back just in time to avoid a strange figure with a rather noticeable spine protruding from his back under his skin. She saw it again. Her master had just landed in front of her on all fours. He stood and looked at her over his shoulder. This was also a different master. This one had a long smile with squinted eyes.

She looked between them hastily trying to take in the moment. No logical explanation came to mind.

She bumped into something cold and chilling behind her. She looked up to see a pair of bright gleaming eyes. And jumped into the air onto a branch above her. The four impostors gathered in a line bellow her. She kneeled down on the branch to look at them better. They looked like her master. All down to their eye's.

"i see your awake."

a voice spoke from above her.

She instantly knew it was her real master. Relieved, the sighed and looked up at him. He was looking as usual, the same unimpressed, blunt expression.

"who are these people?" she asked looking back at them.

"demons." he said.

"demons?"she questioned.

"demon." they each said in turn.

She looked at each one in the line. After a good look, she noticed little alterations that made them more discernible form one another. The first one looked like he was ready to kill the next thing that moved and was standing in an expecting stance with his shoulder's back. The second one looked like he had just woken up. The third one like a fox with his smile stretching across his face and his eye's squinted. And the last one just looked pissed.

"fun lot." she thought to herself.

"you got no idea hun-" the fox looking one said.

Her ears went red as she remembered her masters ability to read the thoughts of others.

"hm?" the second one grunted.

"i wasn't talking to yah knuckle head." the fox one snapped.

"well your the one who keeps thinking out loud!"

the first one said to the third one.

"will you all just shut the fuck up!"the last one demanded.

"the lot of you needs to be quiet for now and listen." the real one said.

They all looked up at him.

"get this, you all got exactly one week to whip this kid into shape so we can go get our stuff back. I mean the hole deal, jutsu, chakra manipulation, the works. Woods got her started, now just finish the job." he ordered to the hims below.

"baow-chika-wao-wao." the fox one mumbled.

The sleepy one scoffed behind his hand. The pissed one rolled his eye's and the manic one just looked at the two like they were week old trash.

She gripped the bark of the tree, ignoring the little out burst.

"do i make my self clear?" the real one said loudly.

They each, in turn agreed and than it was settled. She turned to him again with a look of utter mortification.

He looked at her flatly.

"you gotta be kidding me!" she yelled. Everyones attention was draw to her.

"your telling me that i only get one nights sleep in a week! Getting my hopes up that its finally over! Only to have to be put through four times more work than the last week without a single break!"

she felt a strange burning in the very center of her heart.

"what kind of psychotic, homicidal maniac are you!?" she heard an impressed whistle behind her.

"i don't care how you expect me to do that in one week, but I'm not going to do it!"

the burning became red hot and her heart rate skyrocketed. Heat escaped every pore on her body and her hair was blown directly up. She was startled at the amount of power she felt coursing through her. The bark around her on the branch began to catch fire when it suddenly died down. And returned to the little part of her heart it had come from.

She regretted that outburst. There was clapping behind her and she looked to see the manic one clapping as though proud. Her ears went red as the expressions on the other face's changed.

The sleepy one looked like a camera just flashed in his face. The fox-ish one looked like he was about to burst out laughing, and the last one was smirking. She looked back at the man in front of her. The branch around them was scorched black with little flickers of blue flame, but he was completely unscathed. His eye's still looking at her flatly.

"thats why." he said.

She nodded and turned to the demon hims below her and jumped off the branch.

"ok babe, heres the plan. We- gonna show you the key bits of bein a ninja, you aint getin no special konoichi trainin, hells naw- your gonna get the hole enchilada."

the fox one said walking up to her and leaning on her head.

He pointed a finger at the manic one.

"this maniac over here is gonna teach you the spirit of the fight, 's gonna help ya with all that being able to kill with out remorse thing."

his finger drifted over to the sleepy one who was looking for a place to lay down.

"this numb skull is gonna teach you how to anticipate the opponents next move. He gonna teach you how to think ahead of the game and make things easier."

he pointed at the last one who looked rather annoyed with the introductions.

"Mr. Sunshine here is gonna teach you how to finish a fight the right way. He's covering all that combat know how, the stiles, the week points, the jutsu stuff, all that."

finally he placed his hand on his chest and finished.

"and I'm gonna teach you how to get into the enemies head. Mess with them from the inside. And how to use that to your advantage."

she swallowed a lump in her throat and breathed deep.

"ok which first?"she asked.

"i guess that'd be me." the sleepy one said before an answer could be given.

"yo." he said through his hand.

"hey" she replied.

He made a small hiccuping noise and sat down on with his legs crossed. The rest of the demons each walked to the edges of the plat form and preformed a rather strange assortment of hand movements. They each stopped and a large blue bubble formed around the platform. A small clock was set at the very top of the bubble but it didn't appear to be ticking. She looked down at the person in front of her. He looked up at her and blinked.

"attack me." he said

she hesitantly stared at him and just before she raised her arm to attack she was stopped.

His hand was already pointed with a small orb of energy at the arm she was going to move.

"try not to be so predictable."

she flung her other arm into the air for a punch. A little beam shot past her right leg, just burning the skin. She fell and clenched at her leg.

"your energy was coming form that leg, i stopped it from transferring the force."

she looked up at him almost about to ask what he had already answered. He kept staring at her. His eye's darting all around her face.

"c-mon we better get started. Your to predictable, you need to learn how to be able to attack on a notice with out thinking about it. And remember for future reference, never stop swinging. The second you stop, your vulnerable. Keep swinging until their down. Ok?"

she nodded.

"aahh, what a quick little human you are." he said in a teasing way.

She was puzzled.

"you want me to be more spontaneous?"

his jaw stuck out to one side.

"sure, lets try that." he responded.

The training for seemed to last for a week straight. She didn't have to worry about sleep since the demon seemed more inclined to "sleep on it" rather than force her through a bombardment of rigorous training.

Most of what he said didn't make all that much sense, that is unless she really thought about it. And through time she learned to listen and watch carefully for any sign of movement or an opening in the enemies defense.

At times she would forget that this person was a demon just because of his human like actions.

Speaking of time, she had heard the clock tick a few times when she was sleeping and was beginning to think that it was either a timer, or it served another purpose.

A month seemed to pass and she had grasped what it meant to anticipate the next move. In a brief sparing match, she had been able to counter or dodge most of his moves as though it were second nature. She never won a single match though, he was always able to make her think that she was going the right way. Than out of the blue, completely switch tactics and knock her to the ground.

One morning, she was awoken by a face different to the sleepy demon.

"hello-" the demon spoke.

"welcome to round two"

it was the fox demon, she had assumed would be the last to teach her. She blinked and sat up slowly.

When had they switched out?

"lets get started shall we?"

he raised his hand and the whole platform went black. It was pitch black and she couldn't see a thing.

She looked around her in all directions for even the smallest change in light.

"whats going on?" she asked.

"you've learned how to anticipate, now you will learn how to read and destroy them from the inside to make it easier to destroy from the out. For example, the second your vision went black, you panicked- that tells me that you rely on your sight more than your other senses, your also afraid of what you cant see, i can tell your afraid to move because you don't want to fall off the edge of the platform-this makes you easier to hit. And as an added bonus, it didn't even occur to you that maybe i can't see either- i know this because you spoke after your vision disappeared. With all of this, i can formulate that you are in a panic and would be susceptible to a full frontal attack."

there was a pause.

"so, out of that, what can you tell about me with out being able to see?"

she thought about this. What kind of answer should she give?

After a few short minutes she finally came up with an answer.

"you said that i couldn't see so i didn't move. But how did you know that i didn't move if you said that you couldn't see either?"

he didn't answer.

"very astute point young miss, not bad for a first try."

her vision came back and there he was standing in front of her. That strange smile still stretching across his face.

"lets try something, else."

once again, her training went on for what seemed like a month. She had figured that the clock was just slowing time so that they would have more time to practice. She wasn't put to any physical training like last time. The hole thing was just one big mind game. Puzzles and riddles that held food as a motivation. Just about everything that happened had something to do with a mind game or some kind of mental obstacle.

He would occasionally set up a pattern of tests and then switch them around in the blink of an eye to through her off. It was somewhat strenuous. Eventually it came to a close when he made a long dramatic scene about how she had grown in the time that they had been training, and a hole bunch of mushy bull crap about a blooming flower and so on.

The hole thing left her feeling rather pleased with herself until the face of the fox man changed into that of something out of a horror movie.

"hey kid! Looks like its just you and me now!"

the new demon said.

"so what do we do?" she asked taking a step back.

"raw, power!" a whisper echoed behind her ear. Suddenly the force of gravity seemed to intensify ten fold, she was forced on all fours, struggling to stand up.

"whats the matter? Stand up! Stand up and fight me!" he called from across the plat form.

She tried to stand and to no avail was she able to. He walked over to her with ease, stopping before her.

"weakling, runt, maggot, worm, scum, take your pick, it doesn't change the fact that you are all of them together."

she felt a tear drip down her nose. "Relax he's just getting in your head" she kept thinking.

"for every second you don't move, your earning yourself five push ups." he growled.

She finally got up the strength to left her leg beneath her and attempt to stand. She placed her arms on her knees as support and pushed herself up feeling her muscles stretching past their limits.

"good. Now get back down! I want thirty push ups from you now!" her jaw dropped and made her neck tilt forward slightly form the force.

"now!" he barked.

She collapsed and tried to ready herself for the push ups.

"lets go!" he barked again. She pushed as hard as she could, only making it halfway.

He sat down, back straight, arms and legs crossed, staring at her. She took a deep breath and tried again. She struggled through one and fell to the bark of the plat form.

She panted heavily.

"one." he declared. She wined like a child who didn't want to clean their room and readied for another muscle straining push up.

"after this- thirty squats, sit ups, and shuttle runs across the platform.

She stopped dead and collapsed again.

"don't complain or I'll make it forty!"

one day of training was the worst thing she had gone through in her hole life. The next seemingly month only got worse. Each day the demon had a new way of causing her physical strain. After two weeks what she had done the first day became worm-ups, and the rest was either fighting, a different way of exercising, or throwing up anything she tried to keep down. She had made progress, and eventually got him to do it with him, which by the time she was done with her warm ups, he had already done three or more times.

The time she had feared had arrived. He had told her that the last one was going to absolutely destroy her with his training. It sounded horrible.

It was worse than horrible.

She had finally gotten used to the intense gravity and despite her strength, hadn't changed a bit she only looked like she had grown up a little when ever she had caught her reflection in the water that the leaves would catch. Her hair was longer and more tangled than ever. The long green strips that she had had since birth seemed to have changed into a variety of greens. Some strands would almost looked yellow and others almost black. But still green. She had also seemed to have developed slightly more. She couldn't help but notice this change, it wasn't the first thing she had noticed, but it had been brought to her attention when the current demon had said rather rudely " i bet it would be easier if you didn't have those little tea cups under your cloth-thing!"

she had almost hit him for saying that, but she ignored it.

She was only an inch taller which made it harder to not think about her dress getting shorter.

All that aside, she hated all of this.

"later kid." the demon had said before his face and stance changed to the last demon. He looked down at her with a kind of resentment.

He sighed and stared at her again.

"we've got work to do."

he wasn't kidding, the next month-like period of time was hell frozen over, defrosted, eaten, spit up, flushed down a gas station toilet, left to ferment in septic sludge for a year, than scooped out by the worlds most successive failure in television only to be left in a bigger pool of decomposing sludge.

Her first test was to kill a small animal with out showing remorse.

She than had to eat it raw.

It was the most terrible thing she'd ever done. Whats worse, she didn't get it right the first time.

She had to keep doing it over and over until she felt nothing for it.

She seemed to scare herself when she did it. She felt like a monster.

"doing this is helping you with being able to kill your opponent. The main point in killing them is to feel nothing for them when you carry their blood on your hands."

the first week past and she had gotten used to it. She just kept ignoring the thought of what they could have been.

The next week was like she was training with the last demon, only more painful.

He would order her to do the warm-ups after they fought. Even then she could hardly put a scratch on him. He would never block, just take the hit and then send her flying back. It was like kicking a rock.

By the third day he had explained that by forcing chakra to gather on the epidermal layer of skin and then compressing it, you can make an almost impenetrable shell, depending on how much your focus. He also explained that the only way to break it is to focus more chakra to the extremity that is hitting the shell than the shell it putting out. In turn the side effect is either damaging the shell making it week in the spot of impact for a brief moment. Or all together shattering it along with everything behind it as long as the muscle is relaxed. If the muscle was not relaxed, depending on the pure muscle strength, it could have different reactions. The next week was spent learning how to make this shell. It resulted in a few broken ribs, and several fractures. Apparently this demon knew how to heal wounds, because she would always be healed by the time she woke up.

After a week and a half of grasping the shell, she was told to make a powerful shell and watch from a distance. She did so, half confused, and watched. The demon-master stood in the center of the platform and raised a fist to his shoulder. A small bubble of dark purple, blue, and black energy seemed to raise from the center of his fist, and grow outward. Small jolts of electricity spun around it from top to bottom. It grew and grew until it was the size of a beach ball. Small bubbles of purple floated around inside.

"watch" he said.

He bent down and tore a chunk of branch from the platform and held it at arms length from the orb. He let go and the chunk began circling it. She watched in amazement as it made one full circle before he grabbed it and placed it closer. It began drawing closer and closer until is suddenly vanished inside it.

"what is that?" she asked.

"gravity." he bluntly said staring at it.

"something that i have learned increases the impact of the hit."

he threw his arm back and it shot out at the tree where her real master had been. It hit the tree and cleanly blasted threw it. It continued until it was out of sight.

He turned to her and said. "now its your turn."

this is what the last portion of their time was spent on. Learning how to use the orb.

She was given a short history lesson on its origin. It was a jutsu that he had been inspired to make when he was a human. He had been a ninja who had an ability to manipulate gravity to his will. Once in his youth, he had seen a great demon of amazing power attack a village in the fire country. Their leader had used an ability called the rasengan that he had just gone nuts over. He tried to do the same thing but instead found a different ability. It wasn't all that powerful either. He trained and trained trying everything to make it stronger. One day he had succeeded. The problem was, he wasn't strong enough to withstand its crushing power and died. However, he was given another chance in the underworld. A demi-demon he had met told him about being one of the most powerful demons in the real world. He bragged and bragged until the younger him challenged the demon for his power. The two fought and thusly he was reborn into the world as a great and powerful demon. He was corrupted by his demonic thirst for more power and tormented the living until he was defeated by the master.

She was left speechless there afterwards, unable to think of a single thing to say.

The training was hard, but she was glad that she had been trained so strong. After seeing the resulting damage of what would happen if she couldn't hold it.

Alas, the time came when she had been taught the jutsu and was ready for her leave into the story of her master.

The demons had all appeared on the last day and dispelled the bubble around them. The clock above spun wildly backwards and then disappeared.

There was a thud to her right and her master stood next to her.

"master!" she said almost exited to see him.

"we've done what we could with the runt." the manic demon said.

"she's all yours now." the sleepy one yawned.

"she has talent, don't waste it." the last demon said.

"I'm gonna miss ya squirt, its not everyday you get to watch a little girl grow up!" the fox demon said through a fake sob.

The demons disappeared and her master shivered. He blinked and shook his head. He looked down at her and a small smile crawled up his face.

"I think we're ready to head back for some stuff. I've scouted out everything and know where my stuff is-."

he stopped in mid sentence.

"where are my manors."he said.

He took a step back and faced her directly, looking her in the eye. It didn't burn to look into his eye's.

"i believe a proper introduction is in order. After being trapped in a time slowing orb for a quarter of a year, i think we deserve to know each other."

he stuck his hand out formally.

"I'm crook." he said with the same diabolical half smile.

"crook?" she asked wearily.

"thats what the ANBU keeps callin me- so- ya, crook."

she looked down at his hand and slowly reached for it. She grabbed it and the same feeling of oozing cold seeped over her hand.

"I'm tezute" she said

"and my names weird?" he teased.

She smiled slightly and let go of his hand.

"ready to get out of that rag?" he asked.

She nodded.

"good, now keep up or I'll leave you behind!"he said turning around and shooting through the branches.

She shot after him and they headed back to the town she had given up.


	4. Chapter 4

The two of them blasted through the air atop the branches of the trees beneath them. It was nice to finally get out of that damp, humid hell hole in which she had spent the last week in a time altering dome that made one week feel like four months of intensive training.

She didn't really feel like she learned anything, but in her head she knew she had in a strange way learned a lot.

Her master, Crook as she was told was still ahead of her making the occasional flip or two to keep her from slowing down.

Her thoughts were in a jumble from everything that was and had happened. She was picked out of a random crowd by a dangerous criminal to keep him from dieing, swooped up by said criminal and taught the way of the ninja in a remarkably short time. And to add it all together, she was going home! Not in a 'house and family sense.' But more in a 'home town' sense. There was no real reason to be happy about going home, she was an orphan after all. She only lived on the streets because a group of kids had been rumored to have gathered in a group and where living on their own. She was inspired by the idea and decided to escape like them. It didn't go as planed. She didn't try remembering the details of everything, she just focused on being able to see her old village again.

"How long until we get there?" she called ahead of her.

"not long-" was all she heard. She sighed and kept after him as they glided between jumps towards the town she had once lived in.

"_What an impatient girl"_ one of the demons said in his head. "_At least she was a fast learner, it made things a lot easier."_ another spoke. He ignored the commentary and focused on the smell of people.

Suddenly a wave came over him. The energy was demonic and powerful, almost above average level for a demon. He turned his head in the direction of the wave and closed his eyes. Upon opening them his eyes were a different color of pale yellow with three separate bright yellow rings floating around in them. He scanned the horizon for the source of the sudden wave but as the rings floated listlessly, he found no source. It was, however, fortunate that it had come from the direction that their destination was.

"Master! Did you feel that?" he heard from behind him. She had picked up on either the wave or his eyes. He switched his eyes back to normal and yelled back. "glad you noticed!"

They continued to the town with haste. A strange essence about the wave of energy hung in his head repeating itself over and over again. He saw the tallest building of the town over the trees and heard tezute gasp in in an excited tone. He scowled at the town that drew closer to them and whispered to himself. "dog?"

they stopped outside the town on a roof top next to the forest and surveyed the area. By tez's recollection, they were on the western side of town- thirty third district. This side of town was overgrown and was almost like the slums except for the lack of crime and starvation. And that everyone was well housed and clothed. The buildings were all side by side and only thirty by thirty-five feet wide with more than one level to them. Some of them had trees and vines growing out of them and from under them. The street was nearly impossible to bring a cart over because of the roots and foliaged that broke through the stone road. The roofs were flat and were either covered in moss, or had some kind of hole and or cavity in them with moss and vines growing down into the hole. The roofs also had a small wall like barrier around them no taller than three feet that was probable a design flaw since it would catch the rain when it rained and had probably lead to the districts overgrown state. They had stopped on a house that had an abnormally large banzai tree growing from the back of it making the plumes of branches cover the roof perfectly. Small bushes and patches of moss and some flowers grew on the concrete surface. It was almost like the jungle but with a less hostile feeling and a cool salty smell form the ocean on the southern end of the town. It had apparently snowed and melted away during her time of being gone. There were a few little patches of slush along the side of the road and sidewalk. It was sunny now so it was rather warm, but not by much. Tezute drew out a map of the town in the moss so that Crook could look over it and at least have an idea about where they were.

After explaining the layout of the town and discussing the nearest and fastest rout to the prison where his stuff was, master Crook set out to explore the town and scout out some fitting cloths to blend into the population with out being noticed. It was sun down and the sun was setting, leaving a brilliant display of yellow, orange, red, crimson, than a slow transition to purple and than night blue as the sun arose from behind the building. Tezute was beginning to become tired, as a result, she decided to investigate the rest of the house to keep herself awake. She crawled down a tiny hole by the trunk of the tree and landed on cold, un-mossed floor. She squinted in the dark for a light switch. She had figured that the sun would be lighting the room from where it was, but because it was so dark she assumed that the tree had completely grown over the windows. She found the switch and flipped it on. She had been half right, the tree had grown over the windows, but the windows were actually rather small. And to add to it, they were already tinted.

The room was a livable size, one area was sunken down in a perfect circle where a couch must have been. The room was surprisingly lacking in any foliage of any kind. There was no kitchen, and apparently a fold down bed just to her right. She walked over to it and pulled it down carefully it went down without a noise and looked completely untouched. It was as though someone had just moved out. She wanted to lay down and go to sleep on the bed but instead decided to wait for master Crook to return. She turned out the light and clambered back up the hole to the roof and walked over to the front most left corner and sat down. She blew some of her hair out of her face and leaned back against the cold spongy surface. Her eyes slowly closed as she drifted into a peaceful sleep.

almost soundlessly, Crook glided through a hole in the trees and landed in the center of the roof. He was holding a large bag on each shoulder. He set them down and looked around him. It was almost midnight and the moon was shining like a second sun above them letting the moonlight fall between the holes in the leaves and leave little beams of light scattered across the soft mossy rooftop. He saw Tez sleeping in the corner. He thought nothing of this and opened one of the bags. He pulled out a large black mink blanket with a gold and red dragon spiraling on it with its jaw gaping at the top end of it. He placed it gently over her and returned to the bag. He pulled out a rather long pillow that was rolled up and held together with string and untied it. It unfurled and lazily plopped onto the mossy surfaced roof. He picked it up in his arms and carried it over to where Tez slept. He threw it onto his shoulder and stuck two fingers together in a focusing position. Tezute lifted into the air and he placed the pillow under her, gently letting her land on it and leaving her to sleep peacefully. He opened the bag again and pulled out a evenly sized pillow. He left it tied up and climbed up into the tree a little and leaned against it. He sat for a small amount of time and sighed. He clapped his hands together and preformed a rapid amount of hand signs and protective jutsu that swelled over the rooftop like invisible bubbles. He crossed his arms over his stomach and stared up at the sky.

"_they will all be mine some day."_ he whispered to himself. A small, evil smile crept across his face as he looked slowly down at Tez. A pair of deep black eyes, blacker than the night sky stared intently at him from above her head. They look murderously at him, he laughed to himself and tilted his head back against the tree closing his eyes.

"_in dew time..."_


End file.
